The Children of Israel were told to keep three feasts each year - the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of first fruits, and the feast of ingathering. Should we still do that?

In Exodus 23:14-16, Moses receives the instructions about these feasts. Those three verses in Exodus comprise our brief story. Their inner meaning is explained in Arcana Coelestia 9286-9296.

There are three feasts. In the Word, the number three represents a completeness, a sense of things being covered from beginning to end. Our thankfulness to the Lord is supposed to keep going - to endure.

The first feast, of unleavened bread, stands for worship, for our thankfulness for the Lord's action in our minds to get rid of false ideas. That enables us to start to receive good loves.

The second feast, of first fruits, relates to the planting of true ideas in that "soil" of initial loves for doing good.

The third feast, of harvest, or ingathering, stands for the time when, by applying our true ideas, we receive real good - loves of the neighbor and of the Lord - that become the middle of our lives. This is the state of rebirth, where we have - by working through the year (our lives), and enduring in thankfulness, allowed the Lord to get rid of our false ideas, and push our evil loves to the periphery, so that good can work, and be fruitful.

These feasts, then, represent the progress of our spiritual lives. In some manner, we need to keep them.

748. Verse 11. And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb, signifies resistance and victory by Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human. This is evident from the signification of "blood," as being, in reference to the Lord, Divine truth proceeding (See above, n. 328, 329); also from the signification of "the Lamb," as being the Lord in respect to the Divine Human (See above, n. 314); from which it can be seen that "to overcome the dragon by the blood of the Lamb" signifies to conquer him, that is, those who are signified by "the dragon and his angels," by means of Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human. It is said, Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, since all Divine truth which fills the heavens and constitutes the wisdom of the angels in the heavens proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human; for the Lord's Divine Human is united to the Divine Itself which was in Him from conception, so that they are one; the Divine Itself that was in Him from conception is what He called "Father;" this is united to His Human as the soul is united with the body; this is why the Lord says that:

He is one with the Father (John 10:30, 10:38).

And that He is in the Father and the Father in Him (John 14:7-11).

Because there is such a union, Divine truth, after the glorification of His Human, proceeds from His Divine Human. The Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human is what is called "the Holy Spirit." That this proceeds from the glorified Human of the Lord, He Himself teaches in John:

The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39).

The Human glorified is the Divine Human. (But on this more may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem,n. 280-310; also in Heaven and Hell, from beginning to end. That "the blood of the Lamb" means the Divine proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, may be seen above, n. 476.)

[2] From this it can be seen how much the sense of the letter of the Word differs from its spiritual sense; also how the Word is falsified when it is regarded in a merely exterior way, and not at the same time interiorly. How great the difference is can be seen from this, that "the blood of the Lamb" in the sense of the letter means the Lord's passion of the cross, but in the spiritual sense Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human. If, then, that Michael conquered the dragon by the Lord's passion of the cross is taken as the real truth, it follows thence that by this the Lord took away all the sins of the world, and also by this moved His Father to mercy towards the human race; and yet these ideas are not in harmony with Divine truth which the angels in heaven have, nor with the genuine understanding of truth. How can it be understood that the Lord by the passion of the cross took away all the sins of the world, when yet every man after death becomes such as his life has been in the world, those who do evil coming into hell, and those who do good into heaven? And how can it be understood that God the Father was moved to mercy by the blood of the Son on the cross, and that He had need of such means, when yet He is in Himself mercy itself, love itself, and good itself? From this it is evident that the Word, here and in a thousand other places is falsified if it is looked at in a mere exterior way, and not at the same time interiorly. To look at it exteriorly is to look at it from the letter, but to look at it interiorly is to look at it from the doctrine of genuine truth. When it is believed from doctrine that the Lord subjugated the hells and at the same time glorified His Human by means of temptations, and that the passion of the cross was the last temptation and complete victory by which He subjugated the hells and glorified His Human, this can be understood and consequently believed; and that Michael conquered by the passion of the cross becomes an apparent truth, while that He conquered by the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human becomes the real truth. But when the apparent truth is taken for the real truth, and is confirmed, then the Word is falsified, according to what has been set forth above (n. 719) in the way of illustration.